Microsoft Involved in Censorship Controversy In China

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
issued a fairly impassioned statement a few weeks back, regarding the company’s
unwitting involvement in a gay rights legislation controversy in its home state
of Washington. (http://dotnet.sys-con.com/read/83257.htm)

Steve Ballmer

First accused of selling
out to liberal leftists pursuing a flawed agenda, reversing course, then
accused of selling out to right-wing religious conservatives by withdrawing
support of pending pro-gay rights legislation, the company reversed course
again just as the legislation was failing, and promised to support it in the
future.

Ralph Reed

Well-known religious right
figure Ralph Reed was coincidentally let go from his consulting role at the
company when his contract expired.

Now Redmond finds itself in
the midst of a censorship controversy in China, that emerging economic and
military behemoth that is both loved and feared by U.S. companies and the U.S.
government.

Such is life in an era of
globalization. Multi-national companies such as Microsoft absolutely must
participate as fully as possible in all regions of the world, if they want to
see their stock prices remain healthy. Key IT providers such as Microsoft are
doubly behooved to participate globally, as we live these days in a world being
continuously tightened by ubiquitous communications via the Internet and Worldwide
Web.

Ballmer, in his e-mail to
employees regarding the gay rights controversy, pointedly noted that he would
not be discussing this issue in countries other than the U.S. The world’s
cultures are literally all over the map with respect to their gay rights support
or lack thereof, and Ballmer clearly did not want to step in anything
accidentally and hurt business in the process.

But the world is not a
simple place, and now the issue of free speech has arisen. China is still ruled
by the Communist Party, and is not known for its support of a Western-style
free and open debate. There’s no Speaker’s Corner in Beijing and no First
Amendment in the country’s constitution.

The censorship debate has
occurred over Microsoft MSN’s practice of not allowing users in China to post
words such as "democracy" and "freedom," according to published
reports. The company has acknowledged that it is working with China’s
authorities to censor MSN Spaces users. Although there has been no official
pronouncement from Redmond about this practice, other than to note that it "abides
by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates."

It would be easy enough to
gather quotes from any number of sources lambasting Microsoft for this
practice. But the overriding issue simply reflects current U.S. ambivalence to
China. Staunch trading ally, alleged friends since Richard Nixon’s 1972 journey
there, strong partner in attempted multi-national talks regarding North Korea,
China is hardly considered an enemy of the U.S.

Yet the U.S. feels compelled
now and then to demonstrate its military commitment to Taiwan, and Secretary of
State Rumsfeld very recently expressed alarm at the growing size of China’s
military budget. Meanwhile, China continues to be a major source of new
American immigrants, and remains a big prize for companies wishing to help it
along with building a more capitalistic society.

The U.S. ambivalence was
expressed to this reporter a few years back by very liberal Wisconsin Sen. Russ
Feingold, who told of his allegiance regarding China with the very conservative
Sen. Jesse Helms, noting, “Well, I don’t like China’s human rights policies one
bit, and Sen. Helms simply hates what he still calls Commies, so he and I are in total
alignment regarding China.”

Russ Feingold Jesse Helms Richard Nixon

Chinese PremierWen Jiabao

Microsoft is a big target,
easy to hit. It’s become an iconic American company, with iconic leadership.
Its management would, most likely, simply like to sell its software and embrace
and extend as many markets as possible.

Microsoft doesn’t go
looking for political fights. But the reality is that it will continue to find
them. Companies today must do business throughout the world, but in doing so
they must also realize they will find the occasional metaphorical land mine. In China, Microsoft must, like all other companies, meet with the approval of Premier Wen Jiabao and other Party leaders if it expects to do business there.

It's not as if China is the only country in which Microsoft has faced controversy. The Clinton-era Justice Department certainly went after the company aggressively (triggering the dot-com bubbleburst in the process), and Microsoft is currently embroiled in major disputes with the European Union over its business practices.

Is there a way for
Microsoft in particular, and global businesses in general, to avoid this sort
of controversy? Can they stay agnostic regarding specific political issues,
domestic and international? In particular, is Microsoft somehow morally failing in China, or
simply taking the heat for practices that any smart businesspeople would be
following as well?

Roger Strukhoff (@IoT2040) is Executive Director of the Tau Institute for Global ICT Research, with offices in Illinois and Manila. He is Conference Chair of @CloudExpo & @ThingsExpo, and Editor of SYS-CON Media's CloudComputing BigData & IoT Journals. He holds a BA from Knox College & conducted MBA studies at CSU-East Bay.

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Most Recent Comments

SinoPet06/14/05 06:34:18 AM EDT

Difficult to see how Gates and Ballmer are going to be able to ride the two horses of free speech and Chinese expansion at the same time...they're riding for a fall.

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